New York officials are securing millions in payments and a lifetime ban from the securities and cryptocurrency industries from a former crypto lending platform executive for defrauding investors.
The New York Attorney General says Alex Mashinsky misled hundreds of thousands of investors, including more than 26,000 in New York, about platform safety while using their deposits in high-risk strategies that caused massive losses.
“Mashinsky repeatedly claimed that Celsius made safe, low-risk investments and only lent assets to credible and reputable entities. However, investors’ assets were routinely used in high-risk strategies, many of which resulted in losses that Mashinsky concealed.”
Attorney General James is condemning the deception that left many investors financially ruined.
“Alex Mashinsky promised New Yorkers that his company was a secure place to invest their hard-earned savings, only to leave them penniless when his risky investments collapsed. I will not allow scammers to use cryptocurrencies to prey on unsuspecting New Yorkers. We took action to hold Mashinsky accountable, and now we are barring him from the securities industry so he cannot take advantage of investors again.”
The executive is serving a 12-year federal prison sentence from a parallel criminal case where more than $48 million was forfeited to the federal government.
Mashinsky’s investors and creditors have received more than $3.4 billion through Celsius bankruptcy proceedings as of August 2026.
The settlement requires up to $35 million in payments to New York with conditions tied to federal forfeiture and sentence compliance.
Celsius founders and executives separately paid $16.5 million to the Federal Trade Commission.
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